Professor Dai received his BEng and MSc degrees from Dalian University of Technology and PhD degree from Hokkaido University. Prior to joining CityU, he was a full professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he joined as assistant professor in 2008 and was promoted to associate professor and professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2013 and 2018, respectively.  Before joining The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he had two years of experience as a post-doctoral fellow at Hokkaido University and then worked as a research scientist for two-and-a-half years in the Life Cycle Management Research Center of Coastal Infrastructures, Port and Airport Research Institute, Japan.

Prof Dai is the recipient of several academic awards including the “Best Basic Research Paper Award” from ASCE, Journal of Composites for Construction in 2005, and “Distinguished Young Scholar Award” from the Association of FRP for Construction, China Society of Civil Engineers in 2011, HKIE Structural Excellence R&D Grand Award in 2019, and “Outstanding International Collaboration Award” from JSCE in 2022, and  “The Second Class Award of State Technological Invention Award” in 2023. His research theme is “Emerging Materials and Structural Systems (EMSS) for Sustainable Concrete Infrastructure (SCI)”.

Prof Dai is the contributor of 1 textbook, 4 book chapters, and 6 conference proceedings. He has published more than 350 technical papers (including some 240 SCI journal papers) in the above-mentioned research area. He delivered more than 40 keynote/invited talks at international conferences and other 80 technical presentations worldwide. As the principal investigator, he has secured a number of research funds from various agencies such as the Hong Kong RGC Collaborative Research Fund (CRF), Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF), Hong Kong Innovation Technology Fund (ITF), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), NSFC/RGC Joint Scheme, Construction Industry Council (CIC), Environmental Conservation Fund (ECF) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The total amount of funding has exceeded HK$50 million.

Prof Dai actively contributes his service and leadership to wide international and domestic technical communities. He has been serving Asian Concrete Federation (ACF) as Chair of its Technical Board, the International Institution of FRP Composites for Construction (IIFC) as its Vice President, and FRP Application Committee of China Society of Civil Engineering as its Vice-Chair. He is also an active technical committee member of many other international organizations such as ISO/TC71 and Japan Concrete Institute (JCI). He is a Fellow of IIFC, HKIE, Hong Kong Concrete Institute (HKCI), and International Association of Advanced Materials. Currently, he is an Associate Editor of “Frontiers in Materials”  and “Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology” and  a Vice-Editor-in-Chief of “Journal of Asian Concrete Federation”.  He has served other journals (e.g., Engineering Structures, Construction and Building Materials,  Composites Communications, ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, ASCE Journal of Composites for Construction, Advances in Structural Engineering) as Editor, Guest Editor or Editorial Board Member, and more than 60 international journals as a referee.